CORY MORGAN： Alberta Teachers’ Strike Looms
Episode Stats
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202.08472
Summary
Teachers are going on strike next week, and it s going to hurt our kids education. I m here to talk about why this is a problem, and what we need to do about it, and why the government should do something about it.
Transcript
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Speaking of picketing morons, well, I mean, these ones aren't quite as dim, but they're
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just as entitled. The teachers are going on strike next week. It looks like it's almost
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inevitable. They turned down a deal that would make them the second highest paid in Western
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Canada, capping out after five years, I believe it is, and getting up to $114,000. Don't forget
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you get July off, August off, a break in November off, Christmas break off, spring break off,
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sick days, benefits, an incredible match pension plan, and they're whining. I know it's not
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an easy job. That's why I wouldn't want to do it. But I also know that they're bloody
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well paid well enough. Plus the government promised to give 3,000 more teachers. You can't just
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pull them out of the air. It's an addition, but it wasn't enough. Why? I don't know. They're
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just greedy, to be blunt. That's what it is. Let's talk about who a lot of the teachers
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are. Teaching is a calling. We know that. All of us who went through school know we had
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teachers who were incredible. Some who wholeheartedly embraced what they were doing. They loved what
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they were doing. They saw it as a role to take on, to make children better functional
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as they grow, to become adults and live a good life in society. And there were some who
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were just mailing it in. And more and more and more of them are mailing it in. I tracked
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this all the way back down to our post-secondary institutions, shoving kids into all over the
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place, the liberal arts programs, which fine if you want to take them. But eventually people
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with liberal arts degrees get tired of making lattes. You know, that philosophy degree just
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didn't pay off. So then they upgrade to a teaching certificate because they know that they can get
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all those summer holidays, a good pension and all the rest because it's a short leap to go
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there and make decent money. The problem again, though, is they aren't in it because they love
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it. They're in it because they feel they have to. So then the motivation starts turning into,
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I just want to get as much out of this as I possibly can while I'm here. That's why they're
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getting run ragged. Yeah. When you do a job you can't stand, it gets a lot more tiresome. This system
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needs to change. The teachers union is holding parents hostage. And it's interesting. I was
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listening. I pained myself by listening to, you know, talk radio. I still like to keep up on things
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before I come in to hear the studio in the office. I listened to the talk scandalously saying,
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the government had a plan before the strike. They already had a plan in place to give money to parents
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to help pay for childcare to carry them over during the strike. Well, yes, you should have a plan.
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And we've seen this coming down the pipe for months. You know, you guys would have crapped
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all over the government if they didn't have a plan. But what it is indicating is the government's
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willing to wait this one out. They're not ready to quickly capitulate. They're making it clear that
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this sucks, but parents, your kids are going to be home for a while. Their education is going to be
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stunted because the teachers got greedy and they're going to help you a little bit while you wait this
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out. But I think hopefully, hopefully it's starting the framework for changing the whole system.
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One of the things we need to get out of the system is the bloody unions. Now, the right for organized
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labor is an important one. We can't get rid of it. I don't believe in illegalizing unions. I do believe
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in right to work legislation, though. Let people choose. I believe in merit pay. And I very much
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believe in school choice. We should have a true voucher system. And if you're not familiar with that,
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what that means is, let's say there's this amount per child, whatever it might be, call it, I mean,
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this is just ballpark, call it 10,000 a year per child. That's what it's worth. And the parent chooses
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a school and they can dedicate that voucher. And those dollars will go to that school, whether it's
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homeschooling, whether it's a private school, whether it's a public school, whether it's a charter school,
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whether it's a religious school, it doesn't matter. And people say, oh, private tax dollars will go to
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private institutions. So what? They always do. Do you think they buy their stationary from a socialist
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government-owned corporation? We spend tax dollars on private provision of services at times. Yes,
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that happens in the healthcare system, too, and it needs to happen more. Add a competitive element
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to these schools. People say, it's unfair. The rich kids go to the private schools. Oh, get over it.
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Get over it. The politics of envy, you can't raise everybody up with the politics of envy. All you can
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do is drag everybody down to the same level of misery. It's the crabs in the bucket. You don't like
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that your neighbor can afford to take their kid to a better school? Then work a second job.
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Climb the corporate scrotum pole. Make more money so that you can do that and put your kids in a
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better spot. If you can't, well, that's the way it goes. But your kid gets the exact same amount of
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dollars as that kid does. That's true equality. In fact, you, if you were the low-income person
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complaining, probably paid a heck of a lot less into the system that led to that amount of dollars
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going into the voucher for your kid than the other person.
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And then we can get the diversity of schools. I love it when listening to these educators,
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they don't like being called teachers anywhere. They're teachers. Get over it.
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Talk about, well, we have all the diverse kids, all the diverse needs. They're all different. We have
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to have different setups. And I agree with that. That's absolutely true. All sorts of kids respond
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to different teaching environments. But then as soon as you actually propose changing it by having a
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variety of schools and school choices, suddenly the teachers, you know, oh, no, no, no, no, no. We all
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have to have them in the same standardized schools. We just want more money. That's the reality of what
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it always comes down to. We want more money. No, I want more schools. And part of it is the schools
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aren't responding and balancing to where the students need to be because it's too bloody hard to operate or
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move or shift or adapt to things in a union controlled environment. Inner city schools in the bigger
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cities are actually underpopulated. Whereas the ones in the suburbs where everybody's moving are
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overloaded. Well, let's work on rebalancing that. Let's work on changing it. Let's have new schools
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springing up in areas where there are need through private investment. If the voucher follows the kid,
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take some of that pressure off specialized schools. That's the way to go. But that terrifies the unions.
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Remember the unions, they don't care about the kids guys. I'm not saying teachers are heartless and hate
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kids. But when you talk to the union group, guys, they're there for the teachers. There's no other
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two ways about it. You know, some of those numbers going on, I believe it's about 50 some thousand
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teachers in Alberta. If you divide it up, there's like a teacher for every 20 students. So they scream
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about alleged classes with 40 kids in them. But you know what? They've screamed about that since the 40s,
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50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and up to now. They've always screamed about that. Some schools, if you
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look around, because of that imbalance between inner and suburban areas, you will be able to find
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overcrowded classes. If you look hard enough, you'll find some classes where there's one teacher with 10
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kids. So why don't we try to maintain the balance more instead of just tossing more money at them?
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Well, because that's all they're asking for is more money. They're just pretending it's about the kids.
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And they're playing the nasty games. This gets back to what I was talking about when they're
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doing things like stacking the microphones at an Alberta Next panel. Remember, the kid came up
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talking teachers union talking points. These are the tricks they pay. Take a 16 year old kid,
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stick him at a microphone with a scripted thing to read. Do you think your average 16 year old kid
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happened to know? Oh, look, half an hour ago, here's the exact number that voted in the strike
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vote. Amazing, man, that kid's tuned in, isn't he? Turns out he's a kid who's also organizing a student
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walkout in support of the teachers union. And it turns out that kid right afterwards went and did a video
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interview sit down with the head Ninchy, the head of the NDP. This was just the run of the milk
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student who was concerned with a question who got shut down at an event. No, he wasn't. He was a kid
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who was trained and put there as a plant by the teachers union to try and sidetrack an event
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into something completely unrelated to it. So yeah, we've got a big battle coming up, guys. The posties
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will be the easier one to take on. The teachers are going to be a tougher one. But I think it's time to
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starve them out a bit. Make them a little hungry. Give them a month or two off. I know the parents are
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going to have to suffer. But you know what? When the teachers get a couple of months off,
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which can add up to $20,000 and more, that's going to cut into their summer vacation, isn't it?
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Maybe they'll start to see a little more reason, won't they?
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Start pretending to care about the students and get back to work.